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• Tuesday, August 19, 2008 01:59 AM

  Of Subscriptions and Advertising

  One of the earlier posters accused Mr. Farivar of hypocrisy because he is "... being paid to produce content on a site that charges for much of its content" using money from ads "which [Farivar] would bypass" and subscription fees "which [Farivar doesn't] think are worth [the] money". Salon's model is substantially different from cable subscriptions, though.

  When you purchase cable TV you're getting the shows, but you're also paying for the privilege of seeing the advertisements that come along with them. If I signed up for cable, I would be paying large corporations to bombard me with deceitful, manipulative propaganda designed to brainwash me into compulsively buying crap I don't need. Stripping out the commercials from the content I paid for requires either that I purchase an expensive device like a Tivo, or that I have the time and technical skill to build a homebrew equivalent (still not cheap). Brilliant! No thanks.

  By contrast, a Salon subscription fee makes the advertisements go away. That's completely worth it, right there.

  I've experimented a bit with Hulu. If they offered a subscription service to make the advertisements go away, I might use them more. In the meantime, I'm going to take the money I would have spent on cable TV and buy DVDs instead. That way I get the shows I want, I can watch them on my own schedule, I get to keep them, and I don't have to put up with crappy advertising. Well, aside from trailers, which can be skipped with the "Root Menu" button. Oh, and if I buy a DVD or a box set and it turns out to be crappy, I can sell it at the local used-movies store to recoup some of my cash.

  —Selanit Read Selanit's other letters
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